What's your favorite way to donate?

Nov 13, 2012 8:57 PM

It seems that this time of year we see every charity ever, all at once. So what's your favorite way to donate? The bell ringers with SA? Writing a check to the people who send you address labels? Direct donation to local food pantry?

Top Answers

I usually donate through payroll deduction with United Way at work, and random pocket change to bell ringers. Up until now, my favorite way is the Christmas angel tree - going to the mall, grabbing a few angels and shopping for the presents on the list. Last year, I didn't make it until the day they were taking the tree down and I was saddened to see so many angels still on the tree - so I bargain shopped the heck out of the mall and fulfilled a few more angels than I originally intended. It was pretty awesome. Now I've been volunteering when I can get there at shelters and donation sorting areas for hurricane Sandy victims in NJ. That is the most amazing and humbling experience I've ever had.

We send checks periodically to various charities. I tend to give more throughout the rest of the year than in November or December.
We also donate supplies to some of the animal charities as well as occasionally foster animals which counts as volunteering. :)

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I usually donate through payroll deduction with United Way at work, and random pocket change to bell ringers. Up until now, my favorite way is the Christmas angel tree - going to the mall, grabbing a few angels and shopping for the presents on the list. Last year, I didn't make it until the day they were taking the tree down and I was saddened to see so many angels still on the tree - so I bargain shopped the heck out of the mall and fulfilled a few more angels than I originally intended. It was pretty awesome. Now I've been volunteering when I can get there at shelters and donation sorting areas for hurricane Sandy victims in NJ. That is the most amazing and humbling experience I've ever had.

I usually do the "buy a toy at the cash register" or "give a dollar to whatever charity we chose" things if the store offers them. Usually they only have cheap, $1 or $2 toys, but in the end they add up, right? And I make a LOT of trips to the store, so I can easily end up buying between 5-10 a week.

I used to work for a company that would let us do the United Way donations from our paychecks. Back then I'd give $5 every payday

We send checks periodically to various charities. I tend to give more throughout the rest of the year than in November or December.
We also donate supplies to some of the animal charities as well as occasionally foster animals which counts as volunteering. :)

That and time. One year I was asked to put together how many hours I'd donated to several charites I worked with. Turned out to be 15-50 hours a month. Guess they got their money's worth from me but it was always fun.

I donate cash and goods. I fund a scholarship at a local college and the funds for this come out of my monthly paycheck. I purchase toiletries and canned items I get for free or nearly free ( I know my way around the coupon game pretty well) and donate them to shelters and a youth transitional home. I donate old clothes to Salvation Army and toys to a youth crisis center.

I donate to a number of religious organizations throughout the year. At Christmas I usually add some extra for the specific missionaries that I support and make some one-time gifts to people I don't support on an ongoing basis. I also regularly donate food to the food bank near me. I buy things at deeply discounted prices (recently got Halloween cake mix and frosting for like $0.25 each) and drop things off every couple of months.
The only really specific thing that I do at Christmas time is to do the "Angel Tree" thing that my church does for the nearby crisis pregnancy center. I usually buy diapers and wipes (often use the drug store register rewards/extra bucks I get on Black Friday combined with coupons and sales to make my money go farther) and at least one teddy bear. They give stuffed bears to the clients they see on their first visit, a gift for the unborn child. They go through a lot of teddy bear.

My wife is a shopaholic. She searches all the deals and buys them and then donates to various places - Toys for Tots, shelters, schools, etc. She also can't say no to people at the cash register when asked if she wants to donate a $1 to St.Judes, MDA, Ronald McDonald House, etc.

I'm planning on picking some Salvation Army Angels from a tree (if I can find one this year! I am planning on calling the local SA to see if I can find them that way).

I also bought a bunch of those cheap footballs and other assorted toys on woot! that I'll be donating to my dads church. They have a toy store every year around Christmas time that sells they toys to people in need (super cheap, no more than a dollar in most cases, and it's because the families want to pay something!).

Then, I have some other random toys I plan on dropping off at Toys for Tots, and probably some loose change in the SA bell ringers buckets.

Other random things if I have the money (the dollar store hits me up for a toy every visit, and I usually say yes), and I think some hats/gloves that my dads church will donate to an poor reservation that desperately needs them for the kiddies!

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